Spending Time with Mom

Two of my sisters came to town to spend some quality time with Mom. Big sister Patty drove over from Big Pine, and little sister Jackie and hubby Rick came down from Healdsburg. Jackie and Rick have never seen Park Sierra, our "little piece of heaven" as my Dad once called it, so it was great having them here. All three stayed in Patty's fifth-wheel at the park. Jackie and Rick stopped in to spend a few hours with Mom on Saturday on their way up to Coarsegold. And Patty arrived Saturday night, when we had a nice dinner at our place and some time to chat. Sunday morning "the girls" went down to Fresno to see Mom. Following are some pictures of our time at Hope Manor with Mom. It was a great time to spend together.

It's hard to get good pictures of my mom, but I loved her expression when Patty asked the question "Are you happy, Mom?" She answered "I'm as happy as a lark!" with this adorable smile. So I grabbed the camera and asked her the question again, and she repeated her reply . . . snapped the camera . . . got this great smile!

I'm not sure what we were talking about here, but this is a typical moment of our time spent with Mom. We had some great laughs together, reminiscing about old times when we were kids.

One thing I try to do every time I'm down seeing Mom is to rub her dry skin with lotion. Her skin is very dry, due to some of her medications, that it soaks up the moisturizing lotion like a sponge. Jackie wanted to take this picture of me: Here I am giving her legs and feet a good massage with the cream. . . something I can do to "give back" to Mom a little something from all those years of care she gave her five children.

We got Rosemary, one of Mom's caregivers, to take this picture of the four of us. Today will be a memorable time for Patty, Jackie, and me. . . a special time spent with "Dodie!"

Life is good . . . spending time with our 88-year-old mom.